Zac Efron and Zendaya were 'so bruised' after filming The Greatest Showman

The 21-year-old actress - who portrays trapeze artist Anna Wheeler - and her 30-year-old co-star - who plays Phillip Carlyle in the production - struggled filming scenes in the circus where they were intended to graciously glide past one another, because they would accidentally "slam" into each other when they were whizzing around the arena, which left them battered and sore.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the movie's director, Michael Gracey, said: "'Rewrite the Stars' was incredibly challenging. You'd have this beautiful shot of Zendaya flying around Zac and Zac's in the foreground and it's just perfect. And just as she's about to sing the line that you need in that moment, the rope twists and her whole body moves and that line you want, she's facing away from camera. It's things like that you're like, 'Ughhh!'

"And also a lot of the jumping and swinging and the two of them coming together, there are so many takes of that being so awkward and so clunky as they don't quite swing past each other, they just slam into each other. All of a sudden what's meant to be balletic and slow and wonderful effortless feel, all of a sudden becomes incredibly brutal and violent as these bodies go slamming into each other. That was a lot of takes and a credit to Zac and Zendaya - they were so bruised."

However, the pair were adamant they were going to get the perfect shot and would clamber up on the rope to try "again and again and again" until they captured the desired look.

Gracey added: "But they just kept going again and again and again."

Meanwhile Gracey, who made his directorial debut with the new release, thinks his film has the ability to be turned into a theatre production.

He explained: "When I was pitching the film, the great thing about doing a musical film is you have this amazing piece that could then go straight to Broadway. Instead of CG animals, you could do puppets like 'War Horse' or 'The Lion King'. I think that's an incredibly appealing idea. It would depend on the success of the film but I do believe it would make an incredible stage production."